Trump vs. Obama/Clinton: the True Horror of Identity Politics

When it comes to apathetic politics, there appears to be two camps of people. On the one hand, we have die-hard Trump supporters who will support the golf-addicted billionaire even in cases when he has clearly contradicted his election promises. And on the other hand, we have those who love Barack Obama so much that they continually refuse to admit many of the crimes, horrors and scandals that plagued the Obama presidency. Instead, the latter wish Obama were still president, and still dream of the day the Hawaiian born messiah will return to save the planet.

Meanwhile, Obama is making $400,000 per speech from Wall Street giants that owe their lifeline to the American taxpayer. His presidency did nothing to alleviate the suffering of the African American community; in fact the economic situation for blacks went steadily from bad to worse under Obama’s presidency. When Obama was elected, black unemployment rates stood at 11.1 percent. In 2010, it rose sharply to 16.1 percent, around roughly twice the rate of white unemployment. The economic disparity between blacks and whites continued to rise until the end of his presidency, yet no one seems concerned with this.

Obama was well-spoken, eloquent at times; and appeared to care on the surface about issues other people also pretended to care about.

Conservatives are right to blame Obama and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the refugee crisis, something Trump staunchly opposed Clinton on in his campaign in a number of ways.

As well as vowing to ban all Muslims and create a register (a ludicrous notion), Trump did state that the world would have been better off if Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein had not been overthrown (a sane suggestion). Not many people are aware, but Gaddafi was integral in keeping a lid on migrants wanting to travel from North Africa to Europe, particularly through Italy.

Hillary Clinton was instrumental in convincing Obama to topple Gaddafi in 2011. They both rightfully share the blame for this disaster. Libya previously had the highest standard of living in Africa, according to the U.N. Human Development Index (2010). In 2015 alone, it fell 27 places down the list.

And now we have Donald J. Trump.

If you are reading this article and you are a Trump supporter, now comes the hard part of facing up to reality. You need to ask yourself what it is you liked about Trump so much and disliked about Obama.

Is it because he said he would have left Gaddafi in power and would focus more on making America great again? Is it because he tweeted at least 18 times that Obama should not bomb Syria, and that if he did he would need congressional approval to do so?

Why then is it okay for Trump to bomb Syria without congressional approval in April 2017?

I’m not sure if you are aware of this, but the Syrian government is famous for protecting the rights of minorities, especially Christians. Attacking the Assad regime only empowers Islamic extremists; it certainly doesn’t defeat them or their ideology.

According to a recent report by the London-based IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center, a leading security analysis agency, a whopping 43 percent of ISIS’ battles between April 1, 2016, and March 31, 2017, were fought against the Syrian military and its allies (including Iran, Russia, and pro-government militias). Conversely, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) accounted for a mere 17 percent of the action against ISIS.

According to this report, Syria’s military has been the most engaged entity fighting against ISIS over the past year. In this context, attacking the Syrian government makes no sense if the aim of the U.S. war on terror is to combat extremism and terrorism.

For those of you who find yourself experiencing a cognitive dissonance experience, you should take note that many of Trump’s biggest supporters criticized him heavily for attacking the Syrian government last month. You see, it turns out they were actually sticking to their principles in their reasons for supporting Trump in the first place, and have realised that actually, Trump’s administration has been infiltrated by neoconservative warmongers who don’t serve the interests of the American people.

Seriously, attacking the Syrian government is a Hillary Clinton policy. Clinton came out of hiding prior to the attack to state that Trump should attack Assad’s air bases. Lo and behold – that is exactly what Trump did.

To me, this is the true horror of identity politics. If Clinton had succeeded in winning the election, and started attempting war with Syria, North Korea, Iran, Russia and China, you would all be losing your minds. Now that it is Trump doing so, he is a brave, strong leader who you will support until the last nuclear bomb detonates and we are all completely annihilated.

During the election campaign I saw many memes on social media from people who would say things like “Trump doesn’t receive money from countries like Saudi Arabia who execute gays like me.” Yet Trump is cozying up to Saudi Arabia even as we speak, enabling the radical Kingdom to commit a mass slaughter in neighbouring Yemen by continuing billion dollar arms sales to the radical Kingdom.

How do you feel about Saudi Arabia now?

Seriously, you don’t need to support anyone. If you do, there are plenty of other decent people in the world who do share your worldview who you can support that aren’t contradicting the promises they made to you.

It’s time to put to rest the notion that choosing one or the other will make a difference when it comes to serious issues of war. If Donald Trump cared so much about refugees, or “beautiful Syrian babies”, he wouldn’t be bombing Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan back into the Stone Age right now.

But he is. And that is what you are supporting. If it is wrong for Clinton or Obama to do it, it is equally wrong for Trump to do it.

So what can you do?

Spread this message with everyone who still hasn’t realised the full nature of their enslavement. It is time to wake up the masses. Trump, Obama, Bush and Clinton, are all part and parcel of the same problem.

Trump is not going to save us, just as Clinton was never going to save us. The sooner we realize this, the sooner we can do something about it, without their help.